Alphabet Soup

Anyone in the adoption process can tell you that you acquire a whole new language while on the journey to bring your child home. 

First, you get the homestudy and file your I800a with USCIS. Then you are fingerprinted and receive your I797. Next comes your dossier, state seals, and consulate approvals so you can become DTC. 

Then you celebrate, because DTC was a lot of work. Soon after, you are LID and waiting the long wait for LOA aka LSC. Once received, you seek TA before you can have your CA scheduled and plan for Gotcha day. 

I think we are LID at this point. That means our big batch of paperwork has been received and entered into the system in China. We now have a 2-3 month wait for our LOA (official match approval for Ava). Once we receive LOA, we start applying for visas in order to bring our girl home. We will also be able to publicly share her pictures at that point. And let me tell you, she is so beautiful. 

And if you are lost, we hope to have Ava home in 4-6 months from now. I feel like we have been saying 6 more months for the last six months, but well... That's adoption for ya. 

One step closer...

Any minute now, our agency should have our complete dossier.

We finally received the last piece of our dossier puzzle on Saturday. Our paperwork is now on its way to New York to our agency so that they can forward it to China.

***Moment of Silence***

I definitely feel a weird mixture of relief, triumph, and fear. Relief- because, let's face it, the last several months have been pretty stressful. Triumph- because we jumped some pretty big hurdles. Fear- because this is really happening now!!!

In just a few more months, we will have a new little being in our lives. There are still so many unknowns... will she like us? will she struggle to attach? will the boys like her? will there be undiagnosed medical issues? food issues? sleep issues?

I can't wait though... I can't wait to see her little face and give her hugs (against her will, if I have to). I want to love on her and teach her things. I can't wait to watch her grow!

Adoption Awareness

In honor of National Adoption Awareness Month, here are some statistics on adoption:

• In the United States, 397,122 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system.  This is roughly the same as the population of the entire country of Malta.
• Around the world, there are an estimated 153 million orphans who are living in orphanages or on the streets. This number is the equivalent to the population of Russia.
• According to the U.S. State Department, U.S. families adopted more than 7,000 children in 2012.

It takes time and the effort of many, many people to change the world. But we...YOU could change the world for one person. If you aren't familiar with the starfish story, you can read it here. It reminds me of the quote, "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

Opening your heart to adoption is an amazing thing. Whether you open your home to foster care, domestic adoption, or international adoption, you welcome in a child who needs the love of a family. 

Please consider supporting the Superkids program which sends medical and therapy volunteers to visit children in orphanages in China. The Superkids team has met our daughter and pushed the orphanage to ready her file so that she could be adopted.